Elgin Man Charged In Wife's Death

Victim Killed On Day Divorce Was To Be Final

Cathie S. Gostele, 43, of Elgin was trying to end a marriage gone bad, but her life ended instead on the day that her divorce was supposed to become final.

Police have charged Steven Gostele, 42, Cathie's estranged husband, with stabbing her to death in her Elgin home.

Gostele, a nurse at the Elgin Mental Health Center, and her husband, had been maintaining separate residences during divorce proceedings, police said.

She secured an order of protection against her husband last July and even called police in the late evening of Aug. 4, when Steven Gostele was shouting and banging on the windows of her home at 314 S. Weston Ave., police said.

But in the on-again, off-again marriage, she had allowed her husband to visit her as recently as this last weekend, one neighbor said.

Her body was found in her upstairs hallway Thursday, the same day she was to appear in a Kane County court for a hearing in her divorce case, said Elgin Deputy Police Chief Jim Burns.

Steven Gostele of 452 Moseley St., was charged Thursday night with first-degree murder and one count of violating an order of protection, Burns said.

Gostele has allegedly admitted to police that he stabbed his wife with a knife shortly before their 9 a.m. court hearing, Burns said. He allegedly waited for their three children, ages 24, 7 and 3, to leave her home that morning, police said.